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Explosions indicate only chicken house fire in Frankford

Coastal Point • Laura Walter : Firefighters work on a fire at two chicken houses in Frankford on Saturday, July 26.Three explosions ripped through a sunny Frankford afternoon on Saturday, July 26. Fortunately, the horrific sounds, which came with a massive plume of smoke that spread over the small town around noon, only indicated that two chicken houses behind Mountaire’s grain facility were on fire.

There were no injuries — human or chicken — in the chicken houses, which were mostly used for storage, officials said.

The Frankford, Dagsboro, Roxana and Selbyville volunteer fire companies responded to the incident around noon, but they quickly had the situation under control, said Frankford Assistant Chief John Wright.

The Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control was called out to investigate tanks adjacent to the chicken houses, but nothing hazardous was found in several 55-gallon drums and several above-ground plastic storage tanks.

DNREC’s Michael Globetti called it “an old chicken house that was used for storage and some experimental chicken-feed mixing.”

Mountaire did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

A soft, persistent rain covered the ground as the firefighters cleaned up and went home.